15. toukokuuta 2011

Finale

Despite the mourning the day was beyond amazing and filled with so much love. I'm still pretty much speechless but I will try my best to come up with a full report about what happened before, during and after the last show of the Finnish Wicked. Here we go...

Before the show Wicked Fanclub Suomi had a picnic right next to Helsinki City Theatre at Tokoinranta park. Me and Joonas arrived at 2:30 PM, and it didn't take long as other fans started to arrive there too. The weather was rather cold and windy but luckily it wasn't raining.

Soon we started to paint our 'thank you'-sheet that we were going to give to the crew of Wicked. Making the sheet was so much fun (though we did face some obstacles in typing 'Wicked' correctly, hehe).

The director of Wicked, Hans Berndtsson, came to greet us with his family. It was so nice to meet Hans once again and he seemed to be so happy about our little gift to the crew (and Joonas's Glinda-magic wand too).

After a while the sheet was starting to look rather amazing so we decided to let the paint dry and did some other activities like singing songs from Wicked, playing Wicked-mime game and eating some delicacies.

Around 5 PM we came to the conclusion that it was way too cold to be outside and so we headed our ways to the theatre. The theatre lobby wasn't open to the public yet but luckily we were able to hang out by the ticket booths. Our very own Glinda arrived there too and fans seemed to like her/him very, very much. A couple of fans also finished their 'thank you'-papers for the curtain call.

At 6 PM the doors to the lobby opened. We hung out by the cloakrooms and I tried to spot fanclubbers to sign the 'thank you'-sheet. The excitement amongst fans grew as the starting of the show was getting closer and closer. Around 6:45 PM I gave the sheet to one of the lobby workers and he took it backstage (btw. the Wicked-crew absolutely loved it!). After that I went upstairs, entered the auditorium and sat in the front row. I felt so cozy, yet so weird, but I wasn't nervous or sad at all. I was happy.

At 7 PM came the moment we had all been waiting for. The auditorium was filled with indescribable energy and when the lights went down, the audience started to cheer loudly (as it did during the whole show). It's so hard to put into words something that you just have to experience to know how it feels like. The last Wicked was exactly like that. It was definitely the best Wicked ever and I feel so privileged that I was able to see it. I cried like a baby from the very beginning of the show but I just couldn't help it. I wasn't the only one though - I could hear sobbing from all over the crowd and Maria & Anna-Maija had trails of tears on their cheeks too. The whole crew of Wicked literally gave their all and so did the fans - it was like the most amazing rock concert ever. There were soooo many funny improvisations during the scenes but I'm going to mention only one thing. It's wasn't funny, no, but it meant so much to me:

After 3 hours of emotional rollercoaster it was time for the very last curtain call of Wicked. The crew came to the stage smiling and crying, the audience was literally screaming their lungs out (especially us fans with our 'thank you'-papers) and confetties were flying. After the show Anna-Maija and Maria came to greet us fans. The girls were truly taken of our passion and love, and the 'meet and greet' was something really, really special. Something that will always be remembered.

After the 'meet and greet' there was no other way to put a closure to the day than going to Toveri with Joonas, Helmi and Janniina for an afterparty. The orchestra of Wicked was there too and we chatted a while with the conductor Kristian Nyman. Then we watched Eurovision Song Contest and headed our ways home as it ended.

Now, a day after, everything feels a little bit surreal. These 8 months have changed me for good and though I'll never see Wicked again in the way I fell in love to it, I'm not feeling sad. I'm crying because I'm so grateful.